"My philosophy is that animals do best in their own environments.
"Our service keeps our clients' homes secure and their pets healthy and happy."
-Alenka Andruss
The Story of Pet Watchers, Inc.
The beginning of Alenka Andruss' story is not uncommon in today's world. In 1987, she was a well-paid professional meeting planner when she decided to strike out on her own. Alenka had always had trouble finding help caring for her pets when she had to travel, so pet sitting seemed like a promising idea. She decided to give it a try for a summer and then look for "real work" in the fall.
That all changed after the phenomenal response to her first advertisement in a local suburban newspaper, timed to coincide with the Fourth of July holiday. Suddenly, people going out of town were giving Alenka more pet sitting business than she could possibly handle!
That was the start of Pet Watchers, Inc., a thriving small business based in Evanston, Ill., that today employs an office manager and 15 pet sitters and provides a comfortable income for Alenka and her family.
Alenka says these days, she is more of a CEO than a pet sitter (although she still gets plenty of contact with clients and pets as a hands-on-type manager). One of the best parts is she's finally out of high-heels and the corporate grind and into comfortable walking shoes and jeans. She is attentive to her clients and does her best to assist them, but make no mistake, Alenka Andruss is her own boss and loves it!
The road wasn't always smooth, but that's where viewers of Alenka's new video, Pet Sitting: Getting Started, can learn from her mistakes and profit from her experience. Hundreds of thousands have already read or heard her story on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, ABC TV's daytime Home Show, radio talk shows nationwide and in such diverse magazines as Cats, Consumer Digest, Income Opportunities and Chicago.
Now Alenka has compiled her expertise into a professionally filmed and scripted video that provides more than just the basics. Pet Sitting: Getting Started provides easy-to-understand directions and genuinely helpful ideas. Perhaps best of all, the start-up costs of a pet sitting business are low.
As Alenka herself says,
"With little more than a leash, some business cards, and a determined attitude, you can succeed with your own pet-sitting business."
